Anfield Energy has completed the first underground blast in nearly 40 years at the Velvet-Wood uranium-vanadium mine in San Juan County, Utah, after securing an ATF blast permit in June and rehabilitating the first 700 ft of decline. Ground support now includes rock bolts, wire mesh, new haul roads, mucking, and installation of a primary surface ventilation fan with ducting, air and water lines, power and communications. A water treatment plant and dewatering pump are almost complete, enabling dewatering of historic workings and further underground development targeting 4.6 million lb eU₃O₈ (measured and indicated).

Ethiopia’s Afar Depression and surrounding Arabian-Nubian Shield are framed as a textbook SEDEX setting, combining evaporite-derived dense brines, Neoproterozoic volcano-sedimentary basement and overlying carbonate platforms and calcareous mudstones acting as reduction traps. Nicholas Vafeas points to En Kafala’s iron-manganese-barium exhalative sequence (basaltic basement, reef limestones, layered sulphides) as proof the hydrothermal “plumbing” works, yet notes current exploration remains focused on VMS and shear-hosted gold targets such as Sun Peak Metals’ Tigray projects and East Africa Metals’ Harvest. Any future large-scale copper-zinc discovery would be structurally tied to Chinese-backed infrastructure, notably the Chinese-financed Ethio-Djibouti Railway and Port of Doraleh export corridor.

Gold fell as much as 3.2% to $4,515/oz on Comex after Fed chair Kevin Warsh used his Jackson Hole debut to reaffirm a “firm and fixed” 2% inflation target and signal that short-term rates remain the “predominant tool”, keeping a September hike in play. Silver dropped 4.1% to $67.34/oz, but remains up 71% over 12 months, while gold is still about 11% higher for August and 16% below its January record. Precious metals equities slid 4–6% intraday, yet August gains remain extreme, with Eldorado Gold up 51%, Hecla 44%, Equinox 43% and Agnico Eagle 41%.